The Coming and Going of ‘Christ’

contributed by Rosanna Javier

ILIGAN CITY — Gifts are always special, and only few are as special as a mother’s new bundle of joy.

Dizon Christ said hello to the world last December 15. Melanie Ermac held her healthy 6.8 pound baby girl so tenderly. But it seems some gifts are meant to be savored for only a time.

When killer storm Sendong hit Purok Katipunan in Barangay Palao, two days after Dizon Christ was born, the infant wailed in pitch darkness, waking the rest of the family.

Using a flashlight, Elmer, the head of the family, found his baby daughter and secured her on his belly. Together with Melanie and their other kids Merson and Alfia May, they jumped out of their window and swam towards their neighbor’s house.

As Elmer made his way up the roof, Dizon Christ slipped her hold and was mercilessly towed by the strong current.

In no time, the roof of their neighbor’s house was being pummeled by logs that the floods brought. “Bilis! Akyat tayo sa mangga!” Elmer panicked.

With baby Dizon Christ already nowhere in sight, the family scuttled towards the mango tree where they stayed for six hours until the waters subsided in the morning.

“Mama, nasa langit na kaya si baby?” Merson asked his mom. Melanie kept still. It dawned on her that what God gave, He can take back so abruptly. She only prayed so hard that she could find her poor baby’s body.

A Sad Christmas

A soldier found baby Dizon Christ along a river bank. “She seemed so alive and was without any scratch,” Melanie observed.

For four days, the baby, whose life was snuffed out when she was barely two days old, was laid to rest in San Lorenzo Parish. Inside the church, the Ermac family took immediate shelter. Their only relative wouldn’t even take them in.

Operation Blessing found Melanie sweeping her own space at the Palao evacuation center. She has been staying there for three weeks after they left the church sanctuary. Elmer was back at being a jeepney barker, and the kids, despite their on-and-off fever and colds, have gone back to school. Home has to be the evacuation center for now.

Melanie has been having difficulty sleeping, while her children are losing their appetite. She only asked for vitamins and fever and flu medication for her children at the Operation Blessing medical mission.

A few minutes after counseling with a local pastor, she seemed to be in a lighter mood, and was in fact smiling. She says she hopes to get back to selling goods in a sari-sari store. She hopes that in the days to come, and even without their precious little Christmas gift, they can move on with their lives.